Tuesday, June 19, 2007

I just watched an interview on my local cable channel with our superintendent of schools. In this interview, he was boasting about this brand new state-of-the-art planetarium that they will be building for student use. Working with these students on a daily basis, I know that these students will not care about a new planetarium. Anything that they can see at a planetarium, they can see on any number of free online planetariums. These students will not get excited and go crazy for learning as our superintendent instigates on his television interview. The students will get excited alright. It will be because they get to break the monotony of the boring school day that we subject them to, to go on a field trip.

The bottom line:Our school district has partnered with Cisco to pilot all types of different technologies in the classroom. This is a great thing. The problem is that now as a district, it seems as though we are trying to boast about how advanced we are when it comes to technology. Planetariums are not new technology. It is all about the show. It is a current theme in our country. Have a nice car, can't pay your bills. Have 4 people in you family, own a huge 8 bedroom home that costs $900,000. Driving a Hummer, your kid is on the free lunch program at school. It's all about what is the perceived idea of what other people think of you. I see it every day. This is what is happening in our school district. They build new state-of-the-art buildings for students not taking into account what these students actually need. They need teachers that challenge them to become free-thinkers, have a unique imagination, and become responsible people insociety. Building planetariums has nothing to do with any of these goals. This is just an ill attempt to boast to other school districts about the technology we have in our county. So, look at us, we are the most advanced county in the state. Everyone should be jealous of us! That gets us real far with the actual goal of teaching our students!